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Cyagen Transgenic Animal Center Animal Health Monitoring Program

Mouse and rat colonies at Cyagen Transgenic Animal Center (CTAC) are housed in AAALAC-accredited SPF barrier facilities. They are monitored for a range of pathogens using sentinel animals on a quarterly basis, and more frequently when needed. Sentinel animals are maximally exposed to all other animals in the barrier by soiled bedding transfer. Each sentinel cage contains multiple sentinel animals, of which soiled bedding comes from different cages in the colonies. After six weeks, sentinel animals are tested for bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens. Each sentinel cage typically monitors 40~100 cages. Direct contact method is also used for testing pathogens that are spread through secretion in a small space. In this method, some experimental animals are selected to be housed in the same cage as the sentinel animals for an extended period of time before the sentinel animals are used for pathogen testing. Finally, a subset of the experimental animals are randomly selected for direct testing. Tests are conducted by a number of reputable test providers including Charles River Laboratories (CRL), Vital River Laboratories (which is CRL’s China Branch), IDEXX Laboratories, and Guangdong Experimental Animal Testing Center.